"He spreads them, Oscar," replied the bard, "but it is behind his GATHERED HEAP. He looks over his STONES with fear. He beholds thee terrible, as the ghost of night, that rolls the wave to his ships!" [Sidenote: BRITAIN UNDER DIOCLETIAN AND SUCCESSORS.] It would be improper to leave the reign of Diocletian without remarking, that under it, the church of Christ endured the last and most terrible of the ten persecutions, which pagan Rome inflicted upon the followers of the cross. Britain did not escape. Alban and many others, as Gildas and Bede inform us, were martyrs for the faith. On the withdrawal, in the year 305, of Diocletian and Maximian from the cares of empire, Galerius and Constantius became the rulers of the world. Constantine, afterwards surnamed the Great, was proclaimed emperor, on the death of his father Constantius, at York. After a protracted struggle with several rivals, he became, A.D. 313, sole possessor of the imperial power. He was the first Christian Emperor, and, in token of his faith, inscribed the monogram of the Redeemer upon his banner, and his coin. The circumstances under which he adopted this step are thus detailed— Constantine was in Gaul, and having heard of the opposition of his rival, who was in possession of Rome, he immediately crossed the Alps, and proceeded against him. When near Verona, on his march, and meditating the difficulties of his situation, he was roused from deep thought by a bright light, which suddenly illumined the sky, and, looking up, he saw the sun, which was in its meridian, surmounted by a cross of fire, and beneath it this inscription, τουτῳ νικα—"IN THIS CONQUER." He immediately adopted the cross as his ensign, and formed on the spot the celebrated Labarum, or Christian standard, which was ever after substituted for the Roman eagle. This, as Eusebius describes it, was a spear crossed by an arrow, on which was suspended a velum, having inscribed on it the monogram, ☧ formed by the Greek letters _Chi_ and _Rho_, the initials of the name of Christ. Under this he marched forward, and rapidly triumphed over all his enemies; and, struck with the preternatural warning he had received, and its consequences, he now publicly embraced the doctrines of that religion under whose banner he had conquered.[6] [Illustration] The monogram is well displayed on the reverse of a coin of Magnentius,[7] which is here represented. The Alpha and Omega, which accompany the symbol, indicate the faith of the emperor in the divinity of Christ—‘the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ Constantine removed the imperial seat from Rome to Constantinople. [Sidenote: BRITAIN OVER-RUN BY THE PICTS.]